What you are curious about as an individual helps define you. And what we are curious about as a society helps define us.
Curiosity is one of the driving forces in our development as a species. It can influence the questions we ask, and bring about the scientific discoveries we make as a result. It can inform the stories we tell, and even before that, the stories we read.
But society is made up of individuals, and what we are curious about individually ultimately defines our collective curiosity.
With that in mind: what are you most curious about? And what do you do about that curiosity?
When we are young, the interests we have drive our learning, growth, and development. That might include which books we choose to read, the friends we make, the elective classes we take in school, as well as other life choices.
As an adult, it can influence the jobs we pursue, where we choose to live, who we marry, and so on. Seen in that light, our curiosity helps inform many of the key decisions that define us.
Can you think of examples of something that made you wonder, and how that eventually led, step by step, to some aspect of your life today? Does your curiosity play a part in the hobbies you take part in? The job you have, or the work you do in that job?
Do you read books, skim Wikipedia articles, watch documentaries, or take part in discussion groups? In what ways do you satisfy your curiosity?
Related questions: What makes you curious? How can we encourage curiosity? How can we maintain wonder?
I am curious how, in a nation with such incredible wealth and resources, the United States can accept the deep poverty that some citizens experience. With a gross domestic product topping $27 trillion, we accept that 11% of our population lives in poverty, and well over half a million people experience homelessness each night. How, in a nation with over 800 billionaires, is it that nearly 1 in 5 children in America face hunger.
I am curious about such things not only because I think they are deplorable but because we have the resources to end homelessness, poverty, and hunger. How is it that we have not yet built the political will to end such conditions in a land of such gross wealth and inequities?
My curiosity about wealth, poverty, homelessness, and hunger has led to my vocation as an anti-poverty advocate.